“Awwww honey… You just love me for my riffs.”
This is the band ’68.
They are a noise punk duo from Atlanta, Georgia.
They have a ridiculous name.
They tear rock a new ass.
Singer/guitarist/madman Josh Scogin explodes with tension and a coiled up angst that tastes like hot battery acid.
There have been two drummers. Michael McClellan appears on the unit’s first album, “In Humor and Sadness” which dropped in 2014.
Nikko Yamada has kept the pace in ’68 since appearing on 2017’s, “Two Parts Viper” and the 2021 release, “Give One Take One”.
History lesson: Scogin was founding vocalist of metalcore stalwarts Norma Jean, and then went on to form the more hardcore The Chariot.
’68 is essentially Josh Scogin’s third band, so the number 3 has taken on some added symbolism. The first two songs ever released by ’68 were titled, “Three is a Crowd” and, “Third Time is the Charm”.
“That thought process of continuing on in my head: ‘Three’s a charm,’ Oh, this is gonna be great or ‘Three’s a crowd,’ like we should’ve stuck with The Chariot. – JS
I’ve heard all three bands. And all due respect to his previous work, these ears are glad he didn’t stick with The Chariot.
Because the ’68 just fucking rips, man. Seriously… rips. All I needed was about 25 seconds of, “Bad Bite” and I was on team ’68. Fully. 100%. Some bands just blow the door right off the hinges with the sheer intensity of their rock. ’68 is one of those bands. Just listen…
“We’re just bones and teeth”. Yes we are Mr. Scogin. The man is poet. Lyrics can be subjective, but he turns a phrase at such clever junctions, I fear they might be lost on the casual ear, drowning beneath the waves of rock.
“Celebrate
I’ve got a back pocket full of riffs
If you stick around I’ll let you see them all
‘Cause some fires can’t be unlit
Celebrate
Love is a fickle beast with fiscal immunities
Should I get out before I drown?
Do you kiss your mother with that ugly mouth?”
I dig that kind of flow, all jammed up in those breaks feeling like one line of coke too many.
If you can’t tell, this Scogin character has some layers. Deep caverns of creativity. The dude has been in no less than three signed-to-a-decent-label bands. How many bands have you been in? That’s what I thought… so give some mad respect to ’68.
“You see, I think that music is a gift…” – Josh Scogin, “The Knife, The Knife, The Knife”
How this band gets such a large sound out of a two-piece is a mystery. Part of the magic is Scogin’s command of using some sick ass pedals to thicken up his sound. It works. When most people think of a rock-soaked two piece, The Black Keys or The White Stripes comes to mind. Typically, this level of intensity is reserved for more metal-based gangs, not two suave bluesy rockers with an edge. But ’68 puts such weight into the work, they could open for most any degree of heavy.
But they can also dial it down… a bit… for awhile… Scogin can’t help himself. He must decay into some sort of shouting match before the song is over, but he does it so well, you’d be disappointed if he didn’t. Check out, “Track 7” from their debut album for clarification on this point.
One of the better tricks ’68 employs in their songs, is the punch and dodge of over-driven guitars that bob and weave around Scogin’s lyrics. The whole thing always feels like a drunken back alley street fight that you know you’re gonna win. Stompin and groovin’… all while throwin’ fists. That’s ’68. “Whether Terrified or Unafraid”. Indeed.
“… And I could have been anyone from anywhere.” says Scogin and I believe him.
I’d believe most anything anyone said if they delivered with the intensity of this man. It looks like he’s having a goddamn argument with the mic in, “Track 1 R”, but the song is a train-wreck of rock and roll wreckage going up in a fireball of drum breaks and guitar battles. The veins in my forehead start to bulge just watching this maniac.
The ’68 is a strange and glorious beast. Unique and untamed. Shards of brilliance stabbing through the noise and turmoil, an enraged genius tanked on anger. Thrown out in melees of art called, ‘songs’. That is ’68. That is rock.
And of course they are a controlled explosion live. (*bonus points for the dope stage they are playing upon.)
